See Dani Bake.

Overnight Steel Cut Oats

2015-04-16T14:04:00.002-07:00

**First of all, I apologize for the terrible lighting for all of these pictures. It was at night, so no natural light for me! **

After scouring the internet for a fool proof recipe for overnight steel cut oats, I decided that I needed to post about my journey. I had to take a combination of different recipes and make my own method that resulted in the right texture of oats that me and my husband agreed on. (Although he honestly didn't mind a super chewy -- almost crunchy-- texture... I couldn't get past it.)

You could eat these cold right out of the fridge or your could heat them up like we do in the morning. Just zap them in the microwave for 1 minute. Really -- that's it! Just one minute and they are piping hot and deliciously creamy.

The best part is that the possibilities are endless! You can add whatever you'd like to switch up the flavors. Add some apple sauce and sliced almonds. Or add coconut flakes and crushed pecans. If you're being "bad" add a couple chocolate chips for a sweet addition.

I personally use unsweetened almond milk because I watching my calories and carb intake. But you could use half and half or milk as well. This is the reason you also won't find any added sugar (or artificial sweetener) in my recipe. By all means go ahead and add it if you must, but honestly with the PB and fruit you don't need it.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup dry steel cut oats

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (or 3/8 cup) unsweetened almond milk

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup berries, sliced bananas, apple sauce, whatever you'd like

Half pint mason jars and lids

Preparation:

Place 1/4 cup of dry steel cut oats in one of your mason jars.

Add 1/4 cup almond milk to the oats, mix together and stick in the microwave for 1 minute.

The glass will be hot, so place it on a towel or napkin instead of directly on a cold counter.

Add the vanilla and the cinnamon, mix together.

Add the tablespoon of peanut butter and an extra 2 table spoons of almond milk to loosen up the oats and mix together.

Wash and slice the berries or fruit you're using and add to the jars.

Mix the fruit into the oats so they are fully immersed.

Put the lids on the jar and leave on the counter until the jars are completely cool. (If you are doing a large batch, they will most likely be cool by the time you finish up adding the other ingredients.)

Stick the jars in the fridge until you are ready to eat (at least overnight).

When you are ready to eat, take off the lid, stir up a bit and stick in the microwave for 1 minute OR eat cold. I personally like them heated up. They are warm, filling and comforting.

Enjoy!

Crockpot Corn Salsa Chicken with Quinoa

2012-06-22T10:05:00.001-07:00

New picture! :)

Picture from original post.

I know I have been lagging on the posts as of late. I just honestly haven't been making anything spectacular to post about. I tend to post most of my normal weekday dinners on my Instagram account, but don't usually do blog posts with the recipes unless I take hi-res pictures of the food. The problem with that method is that when I make something and it turns out amazing after I eat it, I have no hi-res pictures so then I don't blog the recipe. Well now that I think about it, that seems silly. Not all of my photos have to be perfect or hi-res. It's the food and taste that all of you really care about anyway! So thanks to one of my Facebook/Instagram friends Grace's request for the recipe, I decided to break tradition and post the recipe and just a simple low-res picture that I took and posted on Instagram last night.

UPDATE : I couldn't stand the low-res singular picture of this yummy dish so I went home during my lunch and shot the leftovers with the hi-res camera. I know, I know. I'm stubborn. Haha. See pictures below at the end of the post! :)

While this may be a crockpot recipe, I'd like to warn you all that I made the quinoa separately and then added it to the yummy shredded chicken.

Crockpot Corn Salsa Shredded Chicken with Quinoa
Yields: about 4-6 servings
Wine pairings: Loma Prieta Winery 2009 Viognier, Amorosa - Lodi GOLD MEDAL WINNER or a good Riesling would pair well

Ingredients

- 4 frozen boneless chicken breasts (I know there is a lot of debate out there regarding putting frozen chicken into a crockpot, but I have done this countless times and have never gotten sick. I got my information from here when deciding whether or not to risk it.)
- 1 jar of Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Salsa
- 1 jar of Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa

- 2 cups of quinoa (rinsed and drained)
- 4 cups of water

Preparation

Chicken
1. Spray the crockpot to ensure nothing sticks, or use one of those crockpot liners.
2. Dump the entire jar of Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Salsa into the pot.
3. Place the 4 frozen chicken breasts on top of the salsa. (Yes, I literally pulled these chicken breasts out of the freezer during my lunch break and stuck them in the crockpot. I'm alive today to talk about it.)
4. Pour about 1/2 of the jar of Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa over the 4 chicken breasts. (It's okay if there are parts of the chicken breasts that are not fully covered in sauce. The breasts shouldn't be submerged.)
5. Set crockpot on high and walk away for a good 5 hours or so.
6. After cooking 5-6 hours on high the chicken should be incredibly easy to shred. I just used 2 forks right in the crockpot to shred the chicken up easily. (The mixture may seem a little watery, but not to fret, it works out!)
7. Pour the rest of the Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa over the shredded chicken and put on "warm" and let sit for another 20 minutes or so while you prep the quinoa.

Quinoa
1. Pour 2 cups of dry quinoa into a fine mesh strainer and rinse completely. (Water dripping out should be clear.)
2. Prepare quinoa per package instructions OR use my method which is using a rice cooker (see below).
-----------------------------------------
Rice Cooker Method
3. Dump the rinsed quinoa into the rice cooker and pour 4 cups of purified water on top.
4. Set rice cooker to "cook" and walk away for about 15-20 minutes until your rice cooker indicates it's done cooking. (I swear by this method, my quinoa comes out fluffy and moist every single time!)
-----------------------------------------

Final steps would be to serve about 1/2 cup of quinoa in a bowl and then place desired amount of shredded chicken on top. I mixed the two together slightly, however you could eat separately and it would taste just as yummy!

This is a really filling meal, so I only needed my one bowl of the mixture and I was stuffed! Almost couldn't eat my last bites. The recipe is boyfriend approved, so I know it's not just me who thought it was pretty darn amazing. ;)

Enjoy!

Beauty Army Box June 2012

2012-06-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hello all! So one of my most recent addictions are beauty boxes. If you haven't heard of them before, they are basically samples of different beauty products and makeup that are shipped to you monthly. It's a great way to try out a bunch of products before buying the full size. I love the concept because it feels like you are getting a present every month! I mean first off, who doesn't like getting mail? Secondly, it's not just mail, it's a package. :) So I decided to be a nerd and do an "unveiling video" like many other people post on Youtube. I am embedding it here for you to all check out if you want. Basically I just show what I got in the box and that way you can compare items received. I signed up for Birchbox and for Glossbox as well, so we will see what those boxes bring.

www.glossybox.com
www.birchbox.com
www.beautyarmy.com (the one I feature in the video)

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes for Easter

2012-05-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, so I know banana chocolate chip cupcakes don't exactly scream "spring" or "Easter," but I had tons of bananas and when I made these a couple months ago they were a big hit with the fam bam. I originally found a recipe that inspired me on epicurious (the original recipe called for a peanut butter frosting--which could also be amazing). The first time I made them I didn't use green food coloring in the frosting and I sprinkled crushed Nilla wafers on top. This time for Easter, I decorated the cupcakes to look like grass with Easter eggs on top using Hershey's candy coated miniature eggs.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Yields: 12 - 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe large bananas, peeled
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (more if you're a chocolate fanatic like me)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or all spice)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)
Green food coloring drops (to preference)
Hershey's Easter Candy Coated Milk Chocolate Eggs (3 per cupcake)

Preparation

Cupcakes
1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.

2. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend.

4. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth.

5. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

6. Using stand mixer (or electric mixer), beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. This took me about 2-3 minutes.

7. Add one whole egg and the egg yolk of the second and beat until well blended.

8. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. (I'm not sure if this really makes a difference or not, but I did this and it made my cupcakes come out light and fluffy--not like when you overmix a batter.)
9. Add in chocolate chips, fold into batter until well distributed.

10. Divide batter among prepared muffin tin -- with about 1/4 cup each.

11. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. (Mine took exactly 20 minutes)

12. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
1. Sift powdered sugar into large bowl.

2. Add cream cheese and butter.
3. Add cinnamon and vanilla.

3. Using stand mixer (or electric mixer), beat until smooth.
4. Add green food coloring and mix until well blended. (Do not overmix)

5. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. (I was at my grandmother's house and didn't have my piping bags and tips so I simply used a plastic baggy and cut off one of the bottom corners to use as my piping bag. But you could get really fancy and use the Wilton's grass tip -- Wilton Multi-Opening #233 Decorating Tip)
6. Place 3 candy eggs in the center of the cupcake.

Enjoy!

First Award -- Liebster Award!

2012-04-09T00:08:00.002-07:00

YAY! How awesome! Thanks Kavita from What's Cooking @ Kavita's Kitchen? for the Liebster Blog award. Apparently, liebster is a German word meaning favorite, dearest or beloved. The award is awarded to up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. It's definitely an honor to be chosen and I'm glad there are people who enjoy my pictures and recipes as much as I love them! :)

I'd now like to keep the love going and share this award with 5 other bloggers who all have a wonderful blog worth checking out.

Here are the 5 I have chosen (in no particular order):

If you accept the award:
Copy and paste the award on your blog. Link back the blogger who gave you the award.
Pick your favorite 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers who deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that they have received the award.
Hope that the 5 blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to 5 more blogs.

"Irish Car Bomb" Cupcakes

2012-03-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

These "Irish Car Bomb" cupcakes are Guinness chocolate stout cupcakes filled with a Jameson whiskey ganache topped with a Bailey's Irish Cream frosting. They were in one word: DELISH! :) I made them last night and brought them to my coworkers and they were definitely a hit. I found these cupcakes online when looking for a tasty treat to bring to work. I was tired of making cake pops for every holiday so I thought I'd do a simple cupcake this time around. But of course, I can never just do something "simple." I found a recipe that included a ganache filling--something that I don't usually do when making cupcakes. I felt a little inspired last night, so I decided to go for it. The original recipe can be found here on I Sing in the Kitchen's blog, I added a couple twists but pretty much followed the recipe for the most part.

I was super excited to make these cupcakes and I was planning on doing a step by step photo tutorial since I had time and wasn't rushed for once. Of course I left my memory card in my work laptop--which was at work. So unfortunately I wasn't able to take hi-res pictures of the steps. I'll still include the pictures I took on my iPhone, but pardon the resolution.

Ingredients

Guinness Stout Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness (Feel free to substitute some other type of stout)
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Jameson Whiskey Ganache Filling
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate (I used 76% cacao dark chocolate from Trader Joes)
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 to 2 tablespoons Jameson whiskey (or your favorite Irish whiskey)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4oz unsalted butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar (cut back or add more depending on how much Bailey's you add)
4-6 tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish Cream (I only had the small 50 ml sample bottle of Bailey's on hand so I had to cut back on some of my powdered sugar)

Preparation

Cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 cupcake tins with liners.
2. Bring 1 cup Guinness and 1 cup butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. (Use at least a medium sized saucepan as my small one got too hot and overflowed--a mess let me tell you.)
3. Take the mixture off the heat and add the cocoa powder and chocolate chips and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
4. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt together in large bowl.
5. Using a stand mixer, beat eggs and then add sour cream in another large bowl and mix well.
6. Add Guinness-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and mix in mixer to combine--don't overmix.
7. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
8. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way (a tip from the original recipe was to use a two cup measuring cup for this task, it worked beautifully).
9. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. This took me exactly 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely before coring for filling. (They smell SOOO good coming out of the oven! I almost wanted to stop and just eat them plain... almost. Haha)

Ganache
1. Heat the cream until simmering and then add in the chocolate chips and dark chocolate. Stir rapidly until smooth while on the heat.
2. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
3. Take the ganache off the heat and let it cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (I put mine in the fridge, but make sure to stir it every 10 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, use a 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer (the original blogger used a large round piping tip and I did the same, it worked perfectly) to cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom, so aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon will help you get the center out (I used one of those plastic tools that you use for dipping things into chocolate with and it worked great). Either toss the scraps (gasp) or eat them while you finish up the cupcakes. I decided to make cake balls with the left over cupcake scraps and left over ganache. They were amazing--almost worthy of doing a separate post.

4. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. (The piping bag really does work wonders and saves a lot of time. If you don't have a piping bag, I'm sure a plastic freezer bag with one of the corners cut would work fine.)

Frosting
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer mix the room temperature cream cheese and butter on low to medium low speed until well incorporated.
2. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar and beat until light and fluffy on medium speed.
3. Drizzle in the Bailey’s, depending on how prominent you want the Irish cream flavoring to be. Mix until completely incorporated.
4. Use a piping bag with tip of your choice (I used Wilton's tip 2D with coupler and disposable piping bag) and frost the cupcakes. Sprinkle with festive sprinkles or decorate to your liking.

OH and if you like the cupcake wrappers, I found them online at the following website and printed them out and wrapped them after frosting and decorating (way less messy if you do it AFTER you frost).

Enjoy!

UPDATE -- Here are some pictures of the inside of the cupcake. :)

Pineapple Fried Rice Style Quinoa with Sweet Chili Stir Fry Chicken

2012-03-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

I made this weeks ago but it's been so busy at work that I've been working a lot of overtime and haven't had time to blog unfortunately. (I haven't even had time to cook actually!) I made this quinoa as an experiment and the chicken followed. I love quinoa and I have been experimenting with it as a substitution for rice. I decided to try making quinoa fried rice style. It was AMAZING. Let me just tell you, it exceeded all of my expectations. I thought it tasted BETTER than some of the normal fried rice I've had at restaurants even. My co-workers loved it as well--it passed the taste test! Haha. You could potentially make the fried rice quinoa with or without the pineapple. I just LOVE pineapple, so I threw it in there.
DISCLAIMER: Sorry for the low quality photos, I really thought this was going to be a failed attempt at something great so I didn't bother with taking a bunch of photos. Next time! :)

Pineapple Fried Rice Style Quinoa

Ingredients
1 cup dry, rinsed quinoa
2 cups water
1 egg
1/4 cup and 2 tbsp grapeseed oil (separated) or 1/2 stick of butter
6 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup chopped cashews (optional)
1 and 1/8 cup yellow onion, finely chopped -- separated into 1 cup and 1/8 cup (I basically chopped up one entire yellow onion and used 1/2 for the quinoa and 1/2 for the chicken)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup chopped baby carrots
2/3 cup peas

Sweet Chili Stir Fry Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce (I got mine at the grocery store but it looks like this: Sweet Chili Sauce - 25 oz)
Pineapple Chunks to taste (I used a whole can of pineapple chunks in water for the rice and chicken)
Salt & Pepper

Preparation

Quinoa
1. Cook quinoa using the method on the back of your package or use a rice steamer like I do. Along with the water and the quinoa, add in about 1/8 cup of chopped onion as well.
2. While the quinoa is cooking (usually takes about 20 minutes) stir fry the yellow onion, carrots and peas in the 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil and garlic.
3. Once the onions look fairly translucent, add in the pineapple. Heat for another 3 minutes or so and then take off the heat.
4. When the quinoa is completely cooked, melt the 1/2 stick of butter in a large skillet (may be substituted for grapeseed or olive oil as mentioned in the ingredients).
5. Put the cooked quinoa into the skillet along with the butter or grapeseed oil and "fry" the quinoa, stirring rapidly as to not burn. (I typically use medium heat.)
6. Once the quinoa is fully coated, add in the stir fried veggies, soy sauce, and chopped cashews and mix thoroughly.
7. In the pan you had the veggies, use the left over oil to fry and scramble up one egg.
8. Once the scrambled egg is cooked, chop it up (using the spatula) and add it to the fried quinoa. Mix thoroughly.

Chicken
While you're frying up the veggies on one burner, start the chicken on another burner.
1. Cube the 2 chicken breasts into 1 inch pieces.
2. Add the grapeseed oil to the pan and saute the onion and minced garlic.
3. Once the onion looks translucent add in the cubed chicken.
4. Stir fry the chicken for a good 5-10 minutes until the chicken looks white. At this point add in the sweet chili sauce and pineapple.

5. Continue to cook the chicken for another 10 minutes on low-medium, stirring occasionally. (I covered my chicken with a lid and let it simmer while I finished up the quinoa.)

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake Pops

2012-03-13T11:46:00.002-07:00

So if you want a tutorial on cake pops see my Holiday Cake Pops post from a while back. I just wanted to share some pictures from the cake pops that me and my co-worker, Rae Ann, and her son (who is in the 3rd grade) made for Valentine's Day. We created a bomb new flavor combo that we deemed Mexican Hot Chocolate. It was basically chocolate fudge cake mix with ground up Abuelita's Mexican Chocolate and cinnamon. The frosting that we mixed with the cake was chocolate fudge with more ground up Abuelita's Mexican Chocolate. These were AMAZING! :) Since we were making some for our co-workers and her son's 3rd grade class we made 2 types of cake pops. The second flavor was red velvet (of course) for Valentine's Day. (You can see my holiday cake pops post for the exact ingredients we used.)

Turtle Cookies

2012-02-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

Boy turtle cookies

Girl turtle cookies

I saw these cookies on Pinterest about 4 months ago and pinned them because I knew I wanted to make them for my mom's birthday. My mom is kind of obsessed with turtles. She thinks they are "soooo cute." She has a lot of turtle figurines and I had made her a ceramic turtle from Petroglyph a couple of birthdays ago. She has pendants and jewelery... and even has a Boudin bread turtle that she has kept as "decoration" in the kitchen. So when I saw these on Pinterest, I knew I had to make them. February came around and I got to try them out for my mom's family birthday celebration. The original tutorial and recipe can be found here on Diamonds for Dessert's blog. Her tutorial is so accurate and easy to follow that I am not going to bother replicating the images.

"Icebox" Cookie Dough (adapted from Diamonds for Dessert's blog)

2 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Wilson's "Moss" green gel coloring (if you are going for all natural ingredients, use 2 tsp matcha powder as the original recipe calls for)
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/8 cup red melting chocolates (optional)

Preparation

1. Cream the butter and the two sugars together.
2. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time and then, mix in the vanilla.

[STOP here to separate the mixture into separate bowls.]

3. Split the mixture that you have so far in thirds and set aside for now.
4. In one bowl, add 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and 1/2 tsp green gel coloring (or the matcha powder). Add one third of the previously split mixture and mix until you get a dough. Mix thoroughly.
5. To the other bowl, add 1 1/2 cups flour. Add the remaining two thirds of the previously split mixture and mix. Now you should have one green cookie dough and one vanilla cookie dough.
6. Split the vanilla dough in half. Place half of the vanilla dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll it so it forms a log with a 1 1/4" diameter.
7. Sandwich the green dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle as long as the vanilla log and wide enough to fully wrap around it (it'll be about 1/4" thick).
8. Wrap the green dough around the vanilla dough log. Use your fingers to smooth out the crease formed.
9. Cover the entire log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
10. Once the dough is firm, remove from the refrigerator. Slice 1/4" thick slices from the dough log and place the cookies onto the baking sheets.
11. Take the other half of the vanilla dough, sandwich it between plastic wrap, and roll it out to 1" thick.
12. Use a round 1" cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough. Take the cookie cutter and cut off part of the circle to form crescent shapes for the turtle heads. (I had to get creative here and use a heart shaped cookie cutter and knife to cut off the rounded parts of the heart for the heads)
13. Use a big straw (like the ones for pearl milk tea) to cut out small circles. Use a knife to cut each circle in half. (I again had to get creative and had to use a small flower cookie cutter and knife to cut semi circles)
14. Now take 1 log slice, 1 crescent, and 5 small semicircles (4 for the feet and 1 for the tail) and stick them together to form a turtle.
15. Preheat oven to 325°F.
16. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
17. Add all the semi circles to the base cookie log slices. Pinch the tail semicircles so it looks triangular. Add two black sprinkles on the crescent for the eyes. Repeat for the other log slices.
18. Chill cookie turtles for 10 minutes.
19. Place in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes.
20. Let cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Decorating

1. Melt the chocolate. Place it in a piping bag. (I cheat and stick the chocolate directly into a freezer bag and then once melted, cut a small slit in one of the corners in order to pipe the chocolate.
2. Pipe two vertical lines on the shell. Then, pipe two horizontal lines on the shell perpendicular to the vertical lines.
(Optional) 3. Melt red melting chocolates and make two triangles near the head of the turtle to form a "bow." This makes girl turtles.

Enjoy!

Superbowl Party 2012

2012-02-19T18:17:00.000-08:00

These are pictures from my first Superbowl party hosted at my apartment. I had lots of fun prepping for the game. We had TONS of food--sliders, bacon wrapped hot dogs, all the food below and all the food people brought. See all the food below. :)

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels (in NE Patriots and NY Giants colors)

Football Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

"Matilda Cake" -- chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate ganache

The whole dessert table setup.

Grandma's Chili Beans with Chorizo

Bloody Mary Bar with the Infused Vodkas

Mimosas

Vodka Gummy Bears

Utensils setup

Vodka Gummy Bears

2012-02-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

We just had our first Superbowl party this past weekend and it was lots of fun! We had WAY too much food as to be expected, but at least I know no one went hungry. I don't think I'll be able to do a post for every single item that we made for the party but the vodka gummy bears we made were a hit to say the least! They are super simple to make and only require some planning ahead of time. They aren't harsh and are actually really sweet and of course fun to eat. There are a ton of tutorials out there on how to make vodka gummy bears so I will just give you some ingredients, step by step instructions and pictures of the results. (See a Youtube tutorial here.)

Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs of Haribo gummy bears (Yes, the brand is important. These gummy bears tend to keep their shape and do not disintegrate as easily as other brands. The amount of gummies will depend on how much you want to make. Buy them cheap on Amazon -- Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears, 5-Pound Bag)
- 1 bottle of Smirnoff Fluffed Marshmallow vodka
- 3 cups of Stoli Vodka (over the 4 day period)
- 1 can of frozen lime juice concentrate

Tools
- large holding container with lid
- strainer
- long spoon

Preparation

1. Add gummy bears to your large holding container. (I put mine in a handful at a time to make sure none of the bears are stuck together.)

2. Fill up container with the entire bottle of Smirnoff Fluffed Marshmallow vodka (the gummy bears should be completely covered).
3. Close the container and put in the refrigerator.
4. After 24 hours take the container out and stir the gummy bears around. You will see that they have absorbed much of the alcohol.
5. Add more vodka so that the gummy bears are completely submerged in vodka. (I used regular Stoli because I didn't have any more of the Smirnoff Fluffed vodka)
6. Repeat this process daily for a total of at least 4 days.
7. On the night before when you want to serve these gummies, instead of adding vodka to the gummies, add the entire can of frozen lime juice. Stir well and mix thoroughly.
8. Put in the refrigerator once again overnight.
9. Right before serving, take the gummy bears out and strain the excess liquid. (Save the liquid in a cup or bowl--it's delicious and can be drank!)
10. Serve the gummy bears in small shot glass plastic containers.

Enjoy!

Clean Eating Cream of Carrot Soup

2012-02-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

After a weekend full of Superbowl festivities and food, I have been anxious to get back on track with healthy eating. I honestly can feel the difference in how I feel and function when I'm eating cleaner than when I am eating processed, junky food. I actually had a stomach ache from all the appetizers this past weekend. Funny enough, I used to be able to eat greasy, rich food with no real problem. Interesting how your body adapts. Anywho, that's enough of my back-story. I decided to make a clean cream of carrot soup for dinner tonight since it's so miserable outside--rainy weather is like snow to Californians. I just had a bowl and it was so warm and satisfying! I decided to post the recipe right after I ate since the cream of broccoli soup I made in the beginning of January seemed to be well received by many people. I had some inspiration from the cream of broccoli soup in terms of ingredients and measurements.

Ingredients
Serves 4-6
- 5 cups of baby carrots
- 4 cups of low sodium organic chicken broth (I use water and Better Than Bouillon Organic Chicken Base)
- 3 cups almond milk (can use soy or non-fat skim milk instead, I personally like the nutty flavor with carrots)
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/4 of a medium yellow onion, chopped finely
- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- 1 tbsp agave nectar (optional based on how sweet your carrots are, some are more bitter than others)
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp allspice (yes, believe it or not, allspice makes this soup very flavorful)

Preparation
1. Boil your carrots in a large stock pot until the carrots are soft enough to mash with a fork. Turn heat down to medium. (This usually takes me about 20 minutes or so.)
2. Strain carrots and set aside.
3. Heat 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil in same pot and add the chopped onion and garlic. Caramelize the onion with the garlic until the onion is transparent.
4. Next add the chicken broth to this same pot and bring to a simmer.
5. Add the 3 cups milk and stir.
6. Add in the carrots to the broth.
7. If you have an immersion blender, use it to puree the soup. (I love mine--Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender with Whisk and Chopper Attachments) Otherwise, you can pour the soup into a blender and puree — be careful, as the soup is very hot.
Note: I prefer a smooth and creamy consistency so I puree my soup for a good 30 seconds to 1 minute, mixing the soup around with the immersion blender in a circular motion. If you prefer a more chunky soup you can puree by using short pulses.
8. Add cayenne, paprika, and allspice. Mix well.
9. Salt and pepper as desired.
10. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pineapple Salsa Chicken & Quinoa

2012-02-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Notice I'm on a quinoa kick? Haha. I just discovered the grain at the beginning of January and have quickly fell in love with it. It's very versatile, just like rice, but has more protein and is better for your body. I can't officially call this recipe "clean" since I used some ingredients which are kind of questionable--slightly processed low sodium soy sauce for example. But you should be able to substitute for completely organic products if you have them at home. The boyfriend LOVED this recipe. He ended up eating more than he should but he couldn't get enough. :) This recipe was inspired by my boyfriend's random purchase of pineapple salsa from Trader Joe's while on his lunch break at work AND the coincidence that I had to stop by his work on the way back home from my lunch break. (Did I mention that working from home on occasion tends to make life pretty convenient?) Anywho I already had chicken ready to go and was just in need of some inspiration, a.k.a. PINEAPPLE--which I can't get enough of--my favorite fruit. The quinoa was honestly an afterthought once I saw that the salsa was getting kind of runny after being heated for so long. PS - Sorry for the crappy pictures, I honestly didn't think I would end up blogging about this particular dinner until after I ate it! Haha.

Ingredients
- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 a can of pineapple chunks (Canned in natural juices, not syrup--very important. If you have fresh pineapple on hand, even better.)
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice (from can above)
- 3/4 jar of Trader Joe's Pineapple Salsa
- 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 cup quinoa

Tools
- slow cooker (Mine's a Crock-Pot Brand 3-Quart Slow Cooker --very inexpensive investment!)

Preparation
1. Coat the bottom of your crock pot with the grapeseed oil to prevent stickage. (Or use those nifty crock pot liners--I was all out.)
2. Place the chicken breasts into the crock pot along with the soy sauce, about three quarters of the jar of salsa and half a can of the pineapple chunks (more depending on your preference). Don't forget to save the juice.
3. Cover and put on high for about 3 hours.
4. Check on your chicken, it should be white all the way through at this point. Your salsa should be a little watery now that it has been heated.
5. Carefully shred your chicken using 2 forks or a fork and a knife--try not to scratch your crock pot. (You could always take out the chicken and do this process in another bowl, I'm just too lazy. Haha)
5. Add the quinoa and pineapple juice to the chicken and salsa and mix around a bit so the quinoa is covered in liquid. (If your crock pot is looking a little too dry with the addition of the quinoa, either add more pineapple juice or water. But these measurements worked out fine for me.)
6. Recover and keep on high for another hour.
7. Your quinoa should now be fluffy and soft. (Tasting is always encouraged.)
8. Stir the quinoa around so that the pineapple and shredded chicken are present in every bite.
9. Viola! Slow cooker healthy meal DONE!

Green Chile Shredded Chicken and Spanish Quinoa

2012-02-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to find time to post all weekend and look--it's already Wednesday! I have been reorganizing and prepping my house for a Superbowl party next weekend. Anywho I made this last week for dinner. It was delicious! I really have been enjoying all my experimentation with quinoa and making my recipes more clean. One of my favorite foods growing up was my grandmother's Spanish rice. Since my quinoa in the rice cooker came out so well the last time I made it, I thought I'd try making a Spanish quinoa using my grandmother's recipe by simply substituting the rice for quinoa. To go along with the quinoa I decided to make a green chile shredded chicken and heated up some sweet corn and black beans.

Green Chile Shredded Chicken

Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 can diced green chiles
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Boil chicken breasts on medium-high for about 15-20 minutes or until white all the way through and easy to pull apart with two forks.
2. Drain chicken and shred. Put back in the pot with oil, lemon juice and green chile. Make sure stove is on low to medium so as to not overcook the chicken--you just want to heat it up with the new ingredients.
3. Once the chicken is fully immersed with the green chile and heated, salt and pepper to taste.

Spanish Quinoa

Ingredients
- 1/4 cup chopped onion (about a quarter of a medium sized onion)
- 1 cup pureed organic tomato (about 2-3 roma tomatoes or 1 large tomato -- I used my mini chopper to puree, it can be a little chunky)
- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/4 cup water

Preparation
1. Heat oil on medium.
2. Add quinoa to oil and saute the quinoa for about 1-2 minutes until fully browned.
3. Transfer the quinoa to your rice cooker.
or
3. Transfer quinoa to a larger pot.
4. Add the pureed tomato, chopped onion and water and stir.
5. Use rice cooker as instructions indicate (mine took about 20 minutes)
or
5. Cook quinoa mixture on medium for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is light and fluffy. (Be careful not to let the rice stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.)
6. Serve chicken on a bed of organic spring mix salad with a side of quinoa and the corn and black bean mixture.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies with Fresh Raspberry Mousse

2012-01-27T16:02:00.000-08:00

I was hanging out with my mom (Hi mom!) and I told her I wanted to bake something with her so I could feature her as a guest chef. :) So we were thinking of something to bake and she mentioned she had a lot of raspberries. I LOVE dark chocolate raspberry truffles from See's Candies--to die for--so I figured we could do something with raspberries and dark chocolate. We both aren't big cupcake or cake fans so we decided to go with brownies. We did a Google search and found this recipe which we slightly adapted to fit our ingredients on hand. We made a couple heart shaped brownies as well as some in a 8x8 pan to be cut into squares. We were at my mom's house so we used her heart shaped pans, not sure where she got them from. I have 4 of the Wilton 4-Inch Heart Springform Pans back at my house that I've used for a similar recipe in the past. I took this pan of brownies to the office and they loved them. :) I personally think that next time I will make the brownies more chocolatey--because let's face it, who can have TOO much chocolate??

Ingredients

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

- 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks (we used Ghiradelli dark chocolate (60% cocoa) chunks but you could use semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks as well, just depends on your chocolate preference)

- 1 1/4 cups all-purposeflour

- 1/2 teaspoonbaking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup granulatedsugar

- 1/3 cup (2/3stick) butter, softened (since this was short notice, we had to cheat and use the microwave to soften the butter--just don't melt it completely.)

- 1 teaspoon vanillaextract

- 2 large eggs

- 1/3 cup freshraspberries, mashed (I prepped the raspberries ahead of time and ended up having to drain some of the juice before I added them to the mixture.)

Raspberry Mousse

- 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

- 3/4 cup powderedsugar

- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks (we happened to have semi-sweet mini chocolate chips on hand, or else we could have chopped up the chunks we used for the brownie mix)

- 1/2 teaspoonvanilla extract

- 1/4 cup freshraspberries, mashed, drained

- 1/3 cup heavy whippingcream

Preparation

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

1) Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease your baking pans very well. (The entire batter will fit in a 9 inch square pan, or you could split it up into 4 heart shaped pans and an 8x8 pan like me and my mom decided to do. It's important to make sure your pans are well greased so you do not have trouble getting the brownies out.)

Mom says: "We lined our 8x8 pan with foil so it would be easier to remove from the pan and cut into squares. Just make sure to grease your foil really well."

2) Rinse and drain your fresh raspberries.

3) Mash the raspberries using a potato masher or something similar.

4) Microwave 1 cup chunks in small, uncovered, microwave-safebowl on high (100%) power for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 15-secondintervals, stir until smooth; cool to room temperature.
Mom says: "You have to heat it in no more than 30 second intervals and stir in between to melt the chocolate without overcooking it. It'll get grainy if you overcook it."

5. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl.

6. Beatgranulated sugar, butter and vanilla extract with your stand mixer or a hand mixer in a medium mixing bowl until creamy.Add the eggs. Beat the mixture until light and fluffy.

Mom says: "Break the eggs in a separate bowl just in case you happen to get a bad egg so you won't mess up your entire batter."

7. Next beat in melted chocolate. (Depending on how fast you are at getting your ingredients together you might have to stick it in the microwave again for 10 seconds to make sure it is still melted.)

8. Stir in flourmixture little by little until blended.

9. Stir in mashed raspberries. (I drained the mashed raspberries at this time since some of the juice was collecting.)

10. Spread into prepared bakingpan. (I used a rubber spatula and the back of a spoon to spread the batter as it is too thick and sticky to just pour. This was probably the most difficult part of the whole process.)

11. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted incenter comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. (Since we used the heart pans as well as the 8x8 we only baked for about 15 minutes and they were completely baked. And honestly we were too eager to eat these bad boys that we didn't let them cool completely before putting on the mousse. We put them on wire racks for like 15 minutes to cool.)

Raspberry Mousse

1. Beat whipping cream in stand mixer or with hand mixer in a small mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Transfer whipped cream to another clean bowl and set aside.

<-- my mom whipping the cream :)

2. Beatcream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract in stand mixer (we didn't bother to wash after whipping the cream) or using the hand mixer in a separate mixing bowl until creamy.

3. Fold in mashed raspberries and choppedchocolate morsels.

4. Fold whipped creaminto raspberry cream cheese mixture until blended.

5. Spread mousse over cooledbrownie and garnish with fresh raspberries.

6. Refrigerate for 1 hour. (We again were not patient and only refrigerated the small heart pans for about 15 minutes again before we plated the brownies for pictures. But the 8x8 pan stayed in overnight.)

7. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the heart pans and pop out. (If using a 9 inch pan without foil lining, repeat this process. If lined with foil, no need to run a knife around the edges, simply pull the foil out of the pan and fold it down in order to cut the brownies into bars.)

Enjoy!!

Me and my mommy. :)

Mom says: "You better make sure I look good in the picture! They already know what you look like!"

Infused Vodkas for the Superbowl

2012-01-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

So this year we are hosting a Superbowl party and my boyfriend Val has been eagerly awaiting such an occasion so he can infuse some vodka for Bloody Marys. Val's passion for Bloody Marys started when we went to a local bar in Japantown for a Niner's party bus over a year ago. He has been stuck on finding/creating the BEST Bloody Mary ever since. When we were in Chicago last year we happened to stumble on a sports bar after Sunday brunch that had a Bloody Mary BAR. Basically it was build your own Bloody Mary complete with 6 different homemade infused vodkas, over 20 different hot sauces, 5 different custom tomato juice blends, and ample toppings--bacon, sausage, cheese cubes, pickles, celery, artichoke hearts, peppers etc. Val wants to recreate this for our Superbowl party but on a smaller scale. Hence our post about infused vodkas. First off, I have to give credit to the boyfriend since he was the one actually prepping and cooking this time. I was just the photographer. :)

We ended up deciding on 2 different flavors--bacon and cucumber. When we looked up instructions online we found a couple tutorials which were really helpful and I'll give credit below for each type of vodka.

Cucumber Infused Vodka -- original tutorial by Shutterbean found here

Ingredients

- 750 ml vodka (we used Stoli vodka)
- 1 large English cucumber, peeled & seeded
- air tight container (we used a tall mason jar from IKEA -- $5 super cheap!)

Preparation

1. Peel, seed & chop cucumbers and place in a seal-able container large enough to contain it all.

2. Add the vodka on top and seal.

3. Store in a cool, dark place (like your pantry) for 3 days, or up to a week, agitating daily. TIP: Apparently any longer and your vodka will develop a bitter taste.

<-- my boyfriend "agitating" the cucumbers ;)

4. Strain with coffee filters or cheesecloth. Store and serve well chilled.

Note: Apparently this recipe was originally from Sean Timberlake of Punk Domestics

Bacon Infused Vodka -- original tutorial and recipe found on ManMade.com

Ingredients

- 6 slices of bacon (normal thickness is fine)
- 750 ml of vodka (we used Stoli again)
- air tight container (we used a tall mason jar from IKEA -- $5 super cheap!)

Preparation

1. Cook the 6 slices of bacon in a frying pan. Don't throw away the grease!

2. Carefully pour the grease in the mason jar. Add the bacon strips standing upright. (Some tutorials chopped the bacon up before hand.)

3. Pour the vodka over the bacon, making sure to completely immerse the bacon strips. (Ours obviously wasn't covering the bacon so we had to use a long wooden spoon to push down the bacon a bit--see final picture. We might add some more vodka tomorrow once we get to the store.)

4. Seal the jar and put in a cool, dark place for 2-3 weeks.

5. After the time allotted passes, place the mason jar in the freezer. The vodka will not freeze but the fat from the bacon will solidify. (pictures to come--sounds gross!)

6. Remove the jar from the freezer, remove the bacon strips and strain the solidified fat through a coffee filter or cheese cloth.

7. Your end result will be a clear, pale yellow vodka that tastes like bacon!

(Cucumber vodka on the left and bacon vodka on the right.)

See how we used these vodkas for Bloody Mary's during our Superbowl party.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-01-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's always interesting when my boyfriend and my good friend Richard get together. They are like two little kids, ganging up on me, the mom apparently. Haha. Anywho after the three of us spent a good 24 straight hours together--including a trip to IKEA, Costco and then assembling all the furniture we bought--it seemed like a good time to have something a little sweet. Richard likes peanut butter cookies and I like chocolate so I thought I'd look up a recipe for Peanut Chocolate Butter Chip Cookies. By the time the cookies were just about done in the oven, I could hear the two "kids" asking if they were ready yet and blaming each other for asking. Oh silly boys. :)

When I was looking for a recipe, I first went on Pinterest for a while and then decided just to Google it. The first recipe that popped up was through About.com, you can find it here.

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

- 1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

- 1 egg

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I think next time I will reduce the flour by 1/4 cup, the dough was a little flaky and hard to form balls)

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°. Blend the butter, peanut butter and sugars in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the egg and mix until fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well. Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture while mixing on low. Fold in the chocolate chips with the mixer or by hand with a spoon. Form small 1 inch balls with ragged edges (not completely smooth) and place onto lightly greased baking sheets. For a tutorial on how to shape cookies check out this site. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Here is the picture tutorial on shaping cookies which I love!


From Brown Eyed Baker's blog. Find it here.

Enjoy!

Holiday Cake Pops

2012-01-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

This past Christmas I felt like being an overachiever and really diversify the cookies and desserts I was bringing to my family celebrations. I figured if I wasn't making most of the food--my grandma still cooks EVERYTHING for Christmas and all of our celebrations, and its soooo good--I would step it up in terms of desserts. So I decided to make cake pops. I had been wanting to make cake pops for a while but hadn't had the time. I found a cake pop tutorial on Pinterest (did I mention that I LOVE Pinterest?? But then again, who doesn't?) and thought it would be a good time to make some Christmas themed cake pops. It looked simple enough. Here is "Decorate This" cake pop tutorial. It was really helpful to know the mistakes that most first timers make so that I could prevent it from happening to my pops. And of course making cake pops wouldn't be complete without consulting the Queen Bee of cake pops -- Bakerella. I decided to make several variations of cake pops and their recipes are below.

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake Pops (original recipe via Bakerella)

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.) -- I used Duncan Hines
1 package of semi sweet chocolate chips -- I used Toll House
colored melting chocolates (available at Michael's in like every color)

For the white chocolate coating variation I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips.

Chocolate Cake Pops (original recipe via BHG)

1 box chocolate cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can triple chocolate frosting (16 oz.) -- I used Duncan Hines
1 package of semi sweet chocolate chips -- I used Toll House
colored melting chocolates (available at Michael's in like every color)

For the white chocolate coating variation I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips.

Tools

lollipop sticks (you can get these at Michael's)
wax paper
a couple blocks of styrofoam (I got them from Michael's but I'm sure you can find them somewhere else for cheaper)

Preparation

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix in enough frosting so that the cake holds together when squeezed. You should be able to roll a firm ball that holds its shape. I tend to add a different amount of frosting depending on what recipe I use; add slowly and test the consistency frequently. (Bakerella says that it may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but it was VERY messy and not that effective. I did the second batch with my Kitchen Aid Mixer and the paddle attachment and it worked perfect.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet with wax paper. (It will make A LOT of cake balls--about 45-50.)
4. Chill for at least 30 minutes. (Bakerella recommends several hours but I didn't really have the patience. You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt a small amount of chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Dip the lollipop sticks in the chocolate (about 1/2") and then place in the center of the chilled cake ball. Stick at least half-way into cake ball and make sure you don't poke all the way through! (This is where the cake pop tutorial I linked above was very helpful.)
7. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm around the lollipop stick.
8. Melt your chocolate--depending on your bowl make sure that you melt enough chocolate so that you can submerge the entire cake pop without tilting the bowl, and without hitting the bottom.
9. Dip cake pop into chocolate, so that it is completely submerged. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: make sure to cover the chocolate around the lollipop stick! It's really important that the entire cake ball is covered with chocolate - otherwise, the cake will escape from any and every tiny hole in the chocolate. (Not pretty!)
10. Once removed from the chocolate, excess coating will start dripping off of the pop. Hold the cake pop in one hand, and gently tap your hand to help remove excess coating, turning the pop as you go so the excess will come off evenly. (Don't tap too hard or your cake pop will start falling off the stick--this happened to me a couple of times.)
11. When you have no drips left, hold cake pop upside down for a few seconds to allow coating to dry a bit before inverting. Invert cake pop, and place in your stand to dry completely. (I put mine in the fridge again to harden up so I could decorate.)
12. Get a couple disposable plastic baggies and use one for each color of melting chocolates to decorate. Stick the baggies in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. If there are a couple bumps just smooth them out by squeezing the bag a bit. Twist the bag and cut a small hole in one of the bottom corners of the baggy. Now just drizzle the colored chocolate over the pops while in the stands and put back in the fridge to harden. And--viola!

Afternoon Snack

2012-01-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Greek yogurt with fresh kiwi and blueberries.

Clean Eating Cream of Broccoli Soup

2012-01-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

It's been particularly cold here in my part of California these past couple of days. Yes, yes--insert rolling of eyes here for all your Midwest and East Coast people who have to deal with the snow. Since it's been cold and I happen to have a lot of broccoli on hand (Costco saves you money but also makes you work for it! Cooking up a storm in order to not waste my bulk veggies.) I decided to look for a recipe for "clean" cream of broccoli soup. I found a couple recipes that I liked, but none of them were quite what I was looking for. So alas, I decided to make a hybrid recipe drawing inspiration from here, here, here and here. This is what I came up with. It was delish! I typically cook for only 2 people so this was the perfect amount for me and my boyfriend--bowls filled up about 3/4 of the way full. If you are cooking for a family you might need to double the recipe. It was really hearty so we didn't eat anything else with it--I'm sure a nice piece of sourdough or toasted bread would be great to sop up the last bits of soup.

Ingredients

- 1 (12-oz) bag broccoli florets, or 4 cups broccoli, finely chopped (I used my electric chopper for this)*

- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion (chopper again)*

- 1 medium sized red potato, finely minced (chopper again)*

- 1/2 cup of finely minced brown button mushrooms (chopper again)*

- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil, separated

- 2 cups organic chicken broth (you can use canned or you can use a concentrate base and add water, see here, I happened to buy mine from Costco)

- 2 tbsp butter

- 2 tbsp whole wheat flour

- 1/2 cup almond milk

- Salt and pepper to taste

- Shredded cheese as garnish (optional)

*Note: If you don't have an electric chopper--get one! Haha. No really, it comes in very handy. I got mine on Amazon -- Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender with Whisk and Chopper Attachments. But if you don't have one when prepping this meal, you can finely chop by hand and it won't be a big problem. You'll eventually need to puree the soup.

Preparation

Chop your veggies. Heat 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil in a dutch oven or large pot and add the chopped onion. Next add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add in the broccoli, red potato and mushrooms to the broth. Heat up a small frying pan and add the last 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil. Heat it and add 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour while stirring constantly. Slowly add the 1/2 cup of almond milk to the oil/flour mixture while whisking thoroughly. I've found a whisk works particularly well. It will be clumpy at first but as the milk heats it will become smooth. Slowly add this milk mixture to the simmering veggies and chicken broth while stirring constantly. Turn down the heat to low and stir soup until mixed thoroughly. If you have an immersion blender, use it to puree the soup. (I love mine--Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender with Whisk and Chopper Attachments ) Otherwise, you can pour the soup into a blender and puree — be careful, as the soup is very hot. I prefer a smooth and creamy consistency so I puree my soup for a good 30 seconds to 1 minute, mixing the soup around with the immersion blender in a circular motion. If you prefer a more chunky soup you can puree by using short pulses. Add salt and pepper asdesired. Garnish with cheese and serveimmediately.

Enjoy!

Roasted Chicken and Veggies with Avocado-Lime Quinoa

2012-01-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

Try to say that 5 times fast! ;) This was a fairly simple meal to make and it is a "clean" recipe for those of you who are trying to eat clean. I originally found the recipe here. It called for asparagus, however I didn't have any on hand so I substituted broccoli. I also had some mushrooms which were going bad soon so I threw those in as well.

Ingredients

Serves about 4-6

Roasted Chicken and Veggies

- Olive oil cooking spray

- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into 2 inch cubes

- 3 medium sized red potatoes, chopped into 2 inch cubes

- 1 cup chopped tomato (Roma or whichever varietal you like)

- 1 cup of broccoli florets

- 1/2 cup sliced brown button mushrooms

- 1 tbsp minced garlic

- 3 tbsp grapeseed oil

- 1 tsp dried rosemary

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- Pinch of sea salt

- Ground pepper to taste

Avocado-Lime Quinoa

- 1 cup uncooked organic quinoa

- 2 cups water

- 1 avocado, cubed

- 2 tbsp lime juice

- Less than 1/4 tsp sea salt

- Ground pepper to taste

Preparation

Roasted Chicken and Veggies

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 13x9 pan or glass dish with cooking spray. Chop your boneless, skinless chicken to make 2 inch "bite-size" cubes. Cube the red potatoes, slice the mushrooms and chop the tomatoes. Place the chicken, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes and broccoli in the dish. Drizzle lemon juice over the entire dish. Sprinkle the minced garlic. Pour the grapeseed oil over, coating as much of the veggies and chicken as possible. Sprinkle salt, pepper and rosemary on top. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. When the chicken is cooked thoroughly (white in color) the dish is done.

Avocado-Lime Quinoa

Right after you put the chicken in the oven, prepare the quinoa per package's instructions. Or if you want to try a quick and easy way of preparing quinoa, try using a rice cooker! It works super well and it's almost impossible to mess up. I have even used mine to make Spanish rice!! Mine's a Panasonic Automatic Rice Cooker 5-Cup. I found out how to use the rice cooker following these instructions.

While the quinoa is cooking and the chicken is in the oven, grab your avocado and cube it into small 1 inch pieces. Once the quinoa is cooked (about 20 minutes for most rice cookers) transfer the quinoa into a medium sized bowl and add the chopped avocado. Gently fold in the avocado and add the lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix again so well distributed.

Enjoy!